http://givingyoga.org/pblog/index.php http://givingyoga.org/pblog/index.php?entry=entry080406-175726 we have sent over $1,900 to the Clarence Foundation and these Afghan schools over the past six months.

Thank you, Giving Yogis!]]> http://givingyoga.org/pblog/index.php?entry=entry071220-122143

Subject: Thank you so much -we received your checks
From: "Bill McCully"
Date: Tue, November 27, 2007 3:48 pm
To: diane@givingyoga.org
--------------------------------------------------------------------------

Dear Diane,

Thank you so much for your generous contribution from the Giving Yoga
program. I just wanted you to know that we received the checks totaling
$776. The Afghan Education initiative will benefit greatly from these
contributions. It was inspiring to receive contributions from some many
people and feels particularly in the spirit of the Clarence Foundation. We
will be sending our personal thanks to everyone, but please send along our
gratitude at this time.

Take care during the holidays.
Sincerely,

Bill

Bill McCully
Administrative Assistant
The Clarence Foundation



]]> http://givingyoga.org/pblog/index.php?entry=entry071106-133251 http://givingyoga.org/pblog/index.php?entry=entry070522-141845
Giving Yogis: We have just donated $611 to GlobalGiving Foundation, to be devoted to the following project for Tibetan birthing facilities:

http://www.globalgiving.com/pr/1400/proj1375a.html

If you read the page about this project, you will see that $611 will go a long way. So a great big thank you to those who have kept coming to Giving Yoga through the ups and downs of my schedule, and to those teachers who have donated their time to help keep it going when I could not be there.

I will be making a big push this summer to bring Giving Yoga back up to the level of participation we had a year ago, now that I will have more of my time and energy available! You can help me by spreading the word about Giving Yoga to your friends and family. I will be starting a new "ad campaign" to promote the program as I did when it first started.

But... I am happy to announce that in early June we will be starting a new Giving Yoga class in Old Town Alexandria, at "Generations Dance Studio," on Friday afternoons. I will be providing and posting further details next week, but these classes will be led by a new Yogafit teacher, Sara Schwartz. I am very happy to have Sara volunteer to lead these classes--at least for the next couple months until she moves to Florida!

I hope you will join me tomorrow (Wed.) at the Lakevale Estates clubhouse in Vienna (Oak Valley Drive), for the usual 7:30-8:45 pm class. Bring a friend or family member!

I will be sending out another email later this week but think it's likely that this coming Sunday's class (5/27) at WarriorYoga will be delayed until later that evening--but that I would still like to hold it (especially since the next day is a holiday off work for many of us). Please let me know if you're interested in attending and available even if the class is (temporarily) scheduled for something like 7-8:30 pm.

Namaste,

Diane

]]> http://givingyoga.org/pblog/index.php?entry=entry070313-193557 click here to view project. Our donation will take this project to its fully-funded level.

Thanks to all of you Giving Yogis for your continued support and generosity.

Namaste,

Diane ]]> http://givingyoga.org/pblog/index.php?entry=entry070308-123857
See http://yoganorthwest.com/santosha.htm

This is a writing on "Santosha", which translates into contentment, non-comparison, gratitude. It's very good to read, especially when just starting out in a yoga class ...



The other day I drove through town and a sign said "Focus not on having, but on being". This is a challenge in the consumer age we are in. But yoga on the contrary is a practice that cultivates the presence of being and true contentment. Let's go back to see what Patanjali said 3,000 years ago about contentment. "Santosha brings supreme happiness."

What is contentment? The dictionary says, “Happy enough with what one has or is; not desiring something more or different; satisfied.” This kind of contentment sounds more like complacency to me. For example, one may say: I’m just going to be happy with my tight hamstrings, I’ll just live with my tender back, or I’ll just stay in Dynamic I forever. Complacency leads to stagnation and lacks vitality, growth and fulfillment. Personally, I prefer the words I once heard from a Taichi master describing contentment. “Accept what you have -- give what you have -- enjoy what you have.”

As a foundation, we first accept what we have. We need to accept our own bodies and abilities which we’ve received from our parents and from our life experiences. We accept our own tight hamstrings, weak arms, round hips and tender backs right now.

Vimela says in Glimpses of Raja Yoga, “Santosha is a sense of contentment which arises when you do not compare yourself with others.” But when we walk into a yoga class we often start comparing ourselves to others. We compare the length of our hamstrings to our neighbors, our strength, our endurance or body shapes. We also compare ourselves with ourselves; how flexible, strong, or slim we used to be a year or 20 years ago. Vimela continues, “As long as there is comparison, there cannot be contentment.”

It’s actually kind of futile to compare ourselves with others, as we are all uniquely different with unique bodies and abilities. What might be one person’s strength might be another’s weakness. In yoga we are not striving for perfect poses, perfect bodies, or perfect beings. Instead in each yoga posture we are exploring our own individual balance, healthy edge, and hidden potentials.

After accepting what we have, we give what we have. We give our hamstrings a chance daily to loosen up with our yoga stretches. We daily practice our yoga to awaken strength, flexibility, healing power and inner wisdom. We practice daily to open the doors for transformation, growth and fulfillment, to help us become the best that we can be.

After giving what we have, we enjoy what we have. Bernard Bounchaud says in The Essence of Yoga, “Focusing on what others have -- or don’t have for that matter -- instead of nourishing gratitude, leads to everlasting discontent.” We need to nourish gratitude. We daily fill our hearts with gratitude for what we already have in our lives; for example, being grateful for having legs and freedom of movement, eyes to see the beauty of creation, and a heart that beats faithfully giving us the gift of life.

A powerful exercise to do before going to sleep is to recall 5 different things each night that we are grateful for in our lives. This exercise changes the chemistry in our cells and makes our inner body smile. I once heard from a senior yoga teacher that gratitude also strengthens the immune system.) So Santosha brings us health as well as happiness, and Bernard Bounchaud sums it all up: “Contentment means looking at every event with a smile. It helps to have a good sense of humor."

Namaste,
]]> http://givingyoga.org/pblog/index.php?entry=entry070107-113849
Dear Diane,

As always, THANK YOU for your support! We just received your latest batch of checks, and I wanted to let you know as soon as possible. I talked with our project team, and they suggest that you might want to allocate the donation to project 1126 Free Heart Surgeries for Rio's Poor Children (www.globalgiving.com/1126). The project is just under its funding goal and your class’ $660 will bring it within $200 of its budget goal.

...

I hope you had a lovely holiday and are enjoying the beginning of this New Year!

-Meredith




]]> http://givingyoga.org/pblog/index.php?entry=entry061219-140118
Season's Greetings, Giving Yogis.

First, due to a schedule conflict I have, tomorrow evening's (12/20) class at the Lakevale Estates clubhouse in Vienna will start a half hour later than usual, so we'll meet 8-9 pm instead of the usual 7:30-8:30 pm. If any of you can make it tomorrow, I will be collecting the last of this year's donations to the GlobalGiving Foundation--so it's a good time to write a check to them that you know I won't be sitting on for too long! I'll be mailing in the past couple months of donations during the last week in December or first week in January.

Second, this Lakevale class is likely the last Giving Yoga class of 2006, as there will be no classes on the Sundays of Christmas Eve and New Year's Eve, and I will be out of town next Wed., 12/27. You should check the website, however, if you will be in town next week and it turns out that we have found that one of our teachers can make it. I will post an update as soon as I know more.

Third, please check the website for changes to the Giving Yoga schedule beginning in January. The classes at East Meets West (in Vienna) will meet on Saturdays, 5-6:15 pm. Classes at WarriorYoga (in Reston) will continue to meet on Sundays, 5-6:30 pm. I have also moved my other regular yoga teaching (outside of Giving Yoga) to East Meets West and have added that schedule on the Giving Yoga calendar. (I have a Hatha Yoga-Levels 1 &2 class on Thursdays, 8:15-9:30 pm, and I'll be part of a rotation for Candlelight Yoga on Fridays, 7-8:15 pm; you can visit the East Meets West website to see their full schedule: www.eastmeetswestcenter.com.)

I'll continue to rely on some outstanding yoga teachers to help lead our Giving Yoga classes. These include some you are probably already familiar with--Mary and Emer Marchetti, Vicki Layman, Johnny O'Connor, and Ravi Vulli--but I hope to keep getting more teachers involved in what has become a long-term project! Eventually I will have bios and photos of all of us on the website! (And maybe someday I--and you all--will actually start using the blog I started--if only I had more hours in my day!) So keep checking the Giving Yoga website for news, features, and the latest schedule: www.givingyoga.org.

I wish you all wonderful times with your family and friends over the holiday season. May you reflect on your blessings and be filled with joy. I hope to see you again in the coming (happy) new year.

Happy Holidays and Namaste,

Diane

]]> http://givingyoga.org/pblog/index.php?entry=entry061010-115323
Oct. 3 article by Jennifer Huget

And the transcript of the follow-up online chat with the author:

online chat with Jennifer Huget]]> http://givingyoga.org/pblog/index.php?entry=entry060913-140448

$450 to Project #1403 – Help Improve Health of Mothers & Children, Darfur: http://www.globalgiving.com/pr/1500/proj1403a.html
and
$550 to Project #1555 – Tsunami Recovery in Five Coastal Villages in India (to sponsor a child for one year):
http://www.globalgiving.com/pr/1600/proj1555a.html


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